Awakening
by CUtopia
Summary: Sleeping Beauty!AU - Princess Katherine has to realise after her awakening that the world doesn't seem to have changed to the better in the last hundred years.


Written for the _Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition_ Season 5, Round 5 – Wigtown Wanderers vs Tutshill Tornadoes

 **Position:** Keeper

 **Prompt:** Daffodil (as inspired by Narcissa Malfoy): Write about a character acting chivalrous, or having another character acting chivalrous towards your character.

 **Word Count:** 2,706 Words

 **Betas:** DinoDina, Aelys Althea

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Entry for the _Last Ship Sailing Competition II_

 **Pairing:** Katie/Marcus

 _ **Round 3**_

 **Prompts:**

(AU) Sleeping Beauty

(word) disheveled

(dialogue) "I'm open to suggestions."

(colour) beige

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A/N: I'm using the original Sleeping beauty as a reference, not the Disney version.

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 **Awakening**

 _Sweet princess, if through this wicked witch's trick, a spindle should your finger prick;_

 _A ray of hope there still may be, in this, the gift I give to thee._

 _Not in death, but just in sleep, the fateful prophecy you'll keep;_

 _And from this slumber you shall wake, when true love's kiss, the spell shall break._

"True love's kiss. What utter horse shit. I shall give these fairies hell for this ridiculous spell. My true love, you? If I were a troll."

"Would you just shut your mouth, woman?"

"That's still Princess Katherine to you!"

Prince Marcus brought his horse to an abrupt stop and turned his head, glaring angrily at the woman that was sitting grumpily behind him on the horse's back. "Listen, _Princess_. I'm not exactly rejoicing either, as I didn't think that you would be such an annoying, loud-mouthed child!"

"Excuse me?" she exclaimed with a gasp, her brown eyes seeming to shoot sparks. "I'm sixteen, I'm not a child! And nobody forced you to rescue me, I could have slept for another hundred years easily!"

"So you imagine it to be easy to say no when your father tells you to go run into that thorny hedge decorated with skeletons to get yourself a bride? I risked my fucking life and what do I get? You!"

Katherine's hands dropped onto her hips and she made a furious noise, feeling the anger boiling inside of her hot and thick. This prince was outrageous and she already found herself missing her deep slumber; in this moment, she truly started to hate her parents for sending her away with this man just because he'd managed to get through those hedges and had kissed her against her will.

It seriously hadn't been the most pleasant experience to wake up with the lips of a guy who seemed to have some amount of troll in his bloodline pressed to hers.

"I'm not a consolation price! And don't treat me like I'm some kind of good to be traded."

Marcus snorted loudly as he pushed his heels into his horse's ribs so it would start moving again. This feisty little princess was some kind of woman. He'd met women like her before, proud and untamable, but he'd never come across a princess that dared to show such behaviour.

"Milady, this is the fourteenth century," he replied dryly, guiding the horse down a slope leading towards a river that flowed through the forest, deciding that it was time for a rest. "Bad news: you're still only here to bear heirs."

Katherine wished she could jump off the horse without breaking something; her parents might think that this Prince Marcus was a good match because he'd broken the curse, but she had an entirely different opinion. She doubted that the fairy had been accurate with the whole "true love's kiss" thing and thought that all of this was a big misconception. This man couldn't be her true love.

"Don't you dare to even _think_ about touching me!"

She glared at his broad, muscular back and the beige linen shirt covering it when the prince said mockingly: "Don't be so full of yourself. We'll consummate our marriage and when you're with child, we'll be even."

"Did chivalry extinguish while I was sleeping? You talk about marriage but haven't even started to properly court me!"

Prince Marcus brought his horse to a stop by the river and rolled his eyes in annoyance, asking himself if this really had been worth the effort. This princess was already giving him a headache with her outrightly rebellious behaviour – this wasn't how he'd imagined this to be. "I thought I had done that by waking you and your whole castle from this curse-induced sleep. Get off, my horse needs to drink."

Katherine glared at him but obeyed, glad for the break, and slipped off the horse's back as elegantly as she could manage. Smoothing her green dress, she let her gaze wander over the small clearing and the river, taking in the simple beauty of the nature with all its colours and fascinating variety. It was the first time she'd really been away from the castle, walking around freely without an escort… well, except for the 'prince' that was now leading his horse to the river. When she'd woken, she'd been excited to finally be free, but that dream had been shattered seconds later.

"Do you always think that you get things without investing some effort? And you accuse me of being pampered," she said, taking a few steps towards a patch of wildflowers growing close to the stream and bent down to pick them, fingertips running over the smooth, colourful petals.

Marcus, who'd been patting his horse's back, whipped around and strode towards her with long, quick steps, expression dark. He'd truly had enough of her antics, and he was glad that it wasn't expected to spend much time with your wife – the only thing that he thought to be positive about this situation. "What the hell is your problem, Princess Katherine? Would you please just shut up?! I can't listen to this constant complaining anymore."

Katherine didn't even flinch when he stared down, towering over her; she simply glared back at him, not willing to back off.

"Obviously you weren't actually _listening_ at all, otherwise you would have an inkling by now why I'm so angry, you… you…"

She trailed off, another wave of anger rushing through her at her inability to find a suitable insult for his ignorance, and released a noise of frustration and fury while crossing her arms in front of her chest, shooting her a confused glance. Of course she caught that, and it only exasperated her even more, causing her to roll her eyes in annoyance. "I know it's hard for you, but could you use that space between your ears for a moment?" she huffed, knowing full well that it would probably make him even less willing to listen to her, but she'd reached a point where she honestly couldn't care less.

"Care to enlighten me? I can't read your thoughts, _Princess_. I'm not a wizard," Prince Marcus shot back with forced politeness and a slightly creepy smile, and she frowned for a moment, then raised her chin a little and continued to hold his gaze.

"Haven't you ever wanted to just do whatever _you_ want to do? Without your parents telling you what would be right or proper or best for the kingdom? Just… be free, go wherever you want?"

Katherine couldn't keep the excitement from her voice as she spoke; the luck she'd always dreamed of was so close now that the curse that had been lifted. Still, she had the little spark of hope inside her that he could understand why she didn't like the thought of being freed from one golden cage just to be put into another one immediately.

Marcus didn't react at first, surprised by her words. Then he shrugged lightly and his indifference was like a punch to the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She should have expected something like this, but it still stung like hell when he said: "Well, maybe, but that's just how life is. Things are expected from us and we do them. And it's not like we're not getting anything out of it when we fulfill the expectations put on us. Why don't you look at it that way? I didn't die in that hedge like the guys before me and will become king because I'm bringing a bride home, while you were woken from that curse and everyone is happy."

"I should have known that you would be so narrow-minded," Katherine spat, glaring up at him. "You can't even look over the rim of your plate to try to understand that not everything is as simple as it seems. I doubt you would be a good king, you're blind to the problems other people face because you don't care."

Her words were harsh, and she intended for them to hit hard; she had nothing to lose, after all.

"I was freed from the curse by you, indeed, but the moment I was, this new freedom was ripped away from me again! I want to explore the world and go wherever I want. Instead, I'm supposed to get into another situation where others make the decision for me, just because the fairy said a hundred years ago that I would be awoken by my true love. And the man who is supposedly my true love treats me as something lesser right now, so I'm asking you, what am I supposed to be happy about? Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean that all I want is to find my prince charming and get married. And I don't care if you think that I have lost my mind, Sir!"

Though the words had only been bottled up inside of her for a few hours, they still burst out of her with an intensity that shocked Marcus. He stared at her, eyes widening as she vented. It was as if a weight was being taken from her shoulders with every sentence that came over her lips, and when she stopped she released a breath, glad to finally have been able to rid herself of at least some of the frustration that had been growing inside of her. Additionally, she found that it was quite amusing to see the prince rendered speechless; even if he wouldn't understand her reasoning, it had definitely been worth it anyway, and she felt satisfied for the flabbergasted expression on his face.

And somewhere in the back of her head, a tiny voice whispered that if he were her true love, he would understand.

Marcus needed some time before he slowly opened his mouth, obviously trying hard to find a good answer, but she never got to find out if he had – just as he was about to say something aloud, cackling laughter broke the silence, making them jump.

Within a few seconds, half a dozen men stormed onto the clearing, swords drawn, and grabbed Marcus before his hand could wander to his own weapon. They obviously didn't think Katherine to be much of a threat as none of them bothered to grab her while she stared at the scene in shock and fear.

"My, my, what do we have here? Shall I bow before the gracious lady and the noble gentleman?" one of the men, probably the leader of the group, asked while eyeing the crown adorned with pearls sitting in Katherine's brown curls. "Oh, lads, I think we might have caught us a royal couple here."

He bowed mockingly in front of her while Katherine refused to show the fear that was rushing through her veins like ice, even though this group of disheveled and dirty bandits definitely was intimidating. Marcus, on the other hand, did tremble slightly, gulping hard as their gazes met and some panic was ringing in his voice as he quietly said: "I'm open to suggestions."

For a second, Katherine was convinced he was surrendering to the men and was close to losing her composure and yell at him for what a coward he was, but then she realised that he continued to look at her intensely, begging her to understand…

"Well, why don't we find out how much gold your families are willing to pay for you?"

Katherine didn't even listen; she subtly glanced to the man standing next to her when Marcus did, gulping hard as she realised what he was trying to make her understand. The man hadn't drawn his sword and his hands weren't anywhere near it, giving enough room to grab it for anyone willing to do so.

Her heart skipped a beat and a wave of doubt rushed over her, but then she forced herself to gather all her courage and determination to not let anybody take away the freedom she'd been waiting for her whole life.

Before anybody knew what was happening she dove forward, pulling the sword from the man's belt in a fluid motion and gripped it with both hands, trying to remember the time she'd sneaked into the stables while playing, taking a sword of the knight's apprentices to imagine that she was slaying her own dragons. The sword was heavy and she was sure that she wasn't holding it quite right, but nonetheless the bandits looked sufficiently intimidated as she took a few heavy steps towards them. In this moment all her fear seemed to have vanished, replaced by courage that was making her heart pump harder, shooting the feeling through her body.

"Step away from him," she ordered, her voice strong and authoritative as she looked at them with the fierceness of a lioness defending her cubs, "or I will make you regret it."

She couldn't deny that she was a little surprised when the men obeyed after a second of hesitation, pushing Marcus to the ground while they took to their heels and fled.

"Cowards," Katherine grumbled to herself, then gazed down at Marcus, unable to keep herself from smirking. "Taking a nap down there, Your Highness?"

"Very funny."

He shot her a half-hearted glare as he pushed himself to his elbows and her expression softened as she offered him her hand. Surprise passed over his face and he hesitated for a moment before he took her hand, briefly eyeing the sword she still held before letting her help him up. "Thank you."

Katherine bowed slightly, her smirk widening as she looked at him and replied: "At least one of us has to be chivalrous, don't you think? I hope you're unharmed, Milord, and excuse my cussing. These savages made me forget my manners for a moment."

His expression got stuck somewhere between a suppressed grin and a grimace, causing her to chuckle lightly. "I guess I owe you for saving me, then."

"Your gratitude will be my meed, Sir."

Marcus laughed lightly and Katherine felt a bit of warmth spread in her stomach as she saw his dark eyes light up. And somehow she felt the atmosphere shift between them, the tension lifting a little, and his voice was surprisingly calm when he asked: "Are you sure you don't want to ask for something in exchange? Your freedom?"

The warmth seemed to intensify and she smiled at him, shaking her head softly. "No. I have the distinct feeling that I can help to start some change if I go with you."

He cocked his head with a questioning glance and she added: "It's about expectations. And somebody has to teach you about chivalry, don't you think?"

"Well, if you're serious about that…" Marcus trailed off, giving her a long glance, and she nodded.

"You and I both have expectations placed on us that we despise. How about we try to show our people that it works out in different ways too? Where everybody has the freedom to choose."

"Sounds very ambitious," he remarked with a trace of scepticism, though she could spot a faint smile curl the corners of his lips.

"It will be. Are you in for a challenge, Prince Marcus?"

It was the first time that she used his honorary title with politeness and respect and she didn't miss how it made him straighten his back a little. He'd given her a choice and now she was doing the same for him; it was all she'd ever wanted, really. The freedom to decide what she wanted to do, and he was the first person in her life who'd actually given her this opportunity, proving her wrong about her first impression of him.

"Sure I am, Milady."

Finally the smile he'd been struggling against broke free and Katherine felt her heart skip a beat as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, gesturing towards his horse with his free arm. "After you, I guess."

Chuckling softly, she bowed slightly and said: "No, after you."

 _For true love conquers all_


End file.
